Lack of housing becoming an HR issue in the North Okanagan | 24CA News
For some time now, the non-public sector has been talking out in regards to the challenges employers are dealing with when employees can’t discover housing.
Now authorities companies are additionally speaking publicly about how the housing concern could possibly be impacting their hiring.
The Vernon School District is discovering some potential employees aren’t in a position to transfer right here due to housing.
“This past summer was the first time we actually hired people, they wanted to be here [and] we wanted them, and then they had to walk away from the contract because they could not find a place to live. That’s just not affordable housing [they couldn’t find] that is reasonably cost housing,” stated Malcolm Reid, the Vernon School District’s director of human assets.
For the varsity district its means they haven’t all the time been in a position to rent their best choice.
“It is frustrating when you get that best possible person, who wants to be here, and because of housing they can’t be here so you’ve got to go to somebody else,” stated Reid.
Interior Health information exhibits over 15 per cent of health-care jobs within the North Okanagan are presently unfilled.
“Like many industries, the healthcare sector is facing a shortage of workers. We know that it can be a challenge for people to find housing, and this can be a barrier to attracting new professionals to the region.” stated Richard Harding, the well being authority’s govt director of scientific operations, in an announcement.
The well being authority didn’t make anybody obtainable for an interview Wednesday on this subject.
Governments typically work onerous to focus on largely positives, however the influence of the housing crunch on employers is one thing the Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO)desires the general public to suppose extra about.
The regional authorities truly helped to place out a press launch on the difficulty this week.
RDNO board chair Kevin Acton stated the regional authorities desires to speak in regards to the points the dearth of housing is creating and educate the general public “on what we want to do to try to resolve it so everyone is prepared for it when it comes.
The central change the regional authorities desires residents to be prepared for, as officers attempt to tackle the housing concern, is extra density.
“When somebody gets a suite in a neighbourhood that it wasn’t maybe allowed before or if a laneway house is built in a neighbourhood where it wasn’t allowed before, I think it would be really important for…people to understand that that’s a possibility now,” Acton stated.
The regional district is hoping that highlighting the influence on employers proves to the general public that change is required.
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